The Letter
by Maraudette98
Summary: : It was a cold grey day in November. The first of November to be exact. Petunia Dursley woke up to a, what she thought was, just a other normal Tuesday. However as the day pass on she starts getting suspicious and on the morning next day, everything in her perfectly normal life turned up-side-down.


**The Letter**

_**Okay so this is a one-shot I just thought of writing. It's the first time I write directly in English without translating it from Swedish, so be nice :)**_

_**However, I hope that you will tell me grammar mistakes that i make and other stuff that you think is wrong.**_

_**The Petunia in this story is my Petunia, the way i look at her. Or the way I wanted her to be like, so if there's something about her that you don't recognize , it's probably because of that.**_

_**Summary: It was a cold grey day in November. The first of November to be exact.**_

_**Petunia Dursley woke up to a, what she thought was, just a other normal Tuesday. However as the day pass on she starts getting suspicious and on the morning next day, everything in her perfectly normal life turned up-side-down.**_

_**Disclaimer: Last time I checked I wasn't blonde, didnt live in Britain and I certainly wasn't a millionaire . Belive me, I'd have noticed.**_

The Dursleys, of 4 ,Private Drive, was proud to say that they're perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in any kind of strange or mysterious secrets. However, everything is not always as it seems.

The fact was that the Dursleys actually had a very big strange and mysterious secret.

Mrs Petunia Dursley woke up to an absolute normal tuesday. Actually the whole morning started out as it always did. She went out of bed and went down the stairs to the kitchen. After she finished making a big breakfast to her baby boy and dear husband, who both had a enormous appetite, the two last mentioned together entered the room and sat down at the table. When both she and Vernon, as her husband was called, she went to feed little Dudley, who was screaming in is high chair.

Vernon merely chuckled lightly at his son's behavior and went to get changed for the day.

Vernon Dursley worked for a firm called Grunnigs. It was a firm that made drills and there's actually nothing more to it, but it was the most normal and boring work you could ever imagine and that's why he liked it so much.

When Petunia finally had maaged to quite down Dudley with some biscuits, she put him back in his high chair and went to say good bye to her husband before he left for work. Vernon pecked his wife at the cheek and teh n went into the kitchen to say good bye to his son too, but decided not to when he saw that his adorable baby boy was throwing his cereal at the walls in the room. He merely laughed and decided to instead of taking care of it just leave Petunia to it.

The day went by without any special incidents. Petunia was completely unaware of what her husband was at teh moment going through. She didn't notice that a couple of owls flew by the window a few times that afternoon either.

Neither did she notice (or maybe she just chose to ignore it) a small group of people dressed in colorful robes, were walking past her outside the libary when she was taking a short walk with Dudley.

No, Petunia didn't notice any of those things. For her it was still that normal grey Tuesday. She was yet unaware of the news that wizards all over Europe, maybe the whole world, was celebrating and whispering about.

Later in the afternoon Petunia took Dudley outside for some fresh air, while she was pretending to sun bathe. In reality, of course, she was eavesdropping at the neighbors. Mrs Bridge was having a loud conversation with her teenage daughter. Dudley crawled around at the ground, having fun exploring the well managed garden.

When Mrs Bridge's Daughter slammed the door and Mrs Bridge hurried after her, Petunia decided that it was time to go inside again. She bent down to pick up Dudley when he crossed his arms and said with a firm voice: "Shan't!"

Petunia beamed at him and kissed him on the cheek while praising him with compliments for learning a new word. Then she went inside getting some cookies for him.

At the evening when Vernon cam home they had dinner and talked about their day. Petunia noticed that Vernon was a lot more quieter than usual but decided not to ask about it, as he seemed to be in deep thoughts, merely humming at her babbling.

After putting Dudley to bed Petunia sat down in front of the TV beside Vernon.

"...owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern. Most mysterious. And now over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be anymore showers of owls tonight, Jim?" the newsman laughed at his own joke.

"Well Ted..." the weather man continued, but Vernon had stopped listening something that Petunia noticed when she entered the room again, after getting to cups of tea.

"Er, Petunia dear. Have you heard from your sister lately?" he asked.

Petunia could feel herself heating up at he mention of her sister. "No." she replied shortly and hoped that he would leave the conversation there.

"Funny stuff on the news." he answered sounding a bit nervous, obviously he was aware of her temperature rising. Petunia felt herself getting a bit nervous too. It was a long time since she saw her sister, and if Vernon spoke of her something had to be wrong. Really wrong. However she didn't show any of the many emotions she felt instead she just snapped back. "So?" She knew she was leading the conversation on now, but was curious to find out what her husband was thinking, maybe find out why he was acting all weird.

"Well I thought...maybe...it was something to do with...her lot." he said sounding unsure. Petunia took a long sip of her tea ignoring the question in his voice, encouraging him to continue.

"Their son, he would be about Dudley's age now, right?" he asked avoiding the questioning look in Petuina's eyes.

"I suppose so." she answered her thoughts leading back to her sister and her little nephew Harry...

"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?" he asked sounding a bit hopeful.

Petunia frowned. "No, Harry. A nasty common name, if you ask me." she said as a matter of factly. "Oh, yes." Vernon answered looking disappointed.

"Yes I quite agree."

The tense conversation ended there, as either Petunia or Vernon wanted to continue.

The evening went on and the Dursleys went for bed. Petunia had a hard time sleeping, her thoughts leading of to her sister. Somehow she couldn't stop thinking about the things Vernon had said.

At that moment an old man appeared at the street outside, turning off all the lights from the lampposts...

The next day Petunia woke up early. The worried conversation from yesterday completely forgotten. She got dressed and went down to put out the empty milk bottles. When her eyes fell on the small package on the doorstep she dropped the bottles in shock an let out a high scream.

Fortunately the scream wasn't high enough to wake up the whole neighborhood, only the little boy in the package opened his emerald green eyes in , staring up at his aunt. Petunia froze when her eyes met those green ones. Lily's eyes. Her Lily.

She gasped and put a hand to her mouth.

Suddenly Harry started crying and Petunia picked him up and hurried inside before any of the neighbors would wake up and notice the little strange package at the doorstep.

After she had managed to quiet down Harry and put him back to sleep in a temporary bed (the cupboard under the stairs) she noticed a tiny letter that the boy had in a tight grip. Carefully, as if to not wake the little sleeping boy, she reached down and pulled the letter out of the little hand.

_To Mrs Petunia Evans Dursley_

She starred at the somehow familiar writing. With shaking hands she opened the envelope and started reading.

_Dear Mrs Petunia Evans Dursley_,

_In the light of recent events, there's a lot that is in need of us knowing and taking care of. And therefor, I need to ask to to a couple of things._

Petunia frowned at this, what was so important that her sister and good-for-nothing-husband couldn't do on their own?

_The night between yesterday and today was a tragic _night for many of us. Your sister, _Lily Evans Potter, has surely mentioned that a very dark wizard has been on rise in our world? Most wizards and witches don't speak of the name he is known under, but as you deserve the truth and __fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself, i will tell you anyway. Voldemort._

_Petunia couldn't help but flinch. Lili had mentioned that name al ot of times in her letters. Yes, she read them. When no one else was looking of course. She had in fact read every single letter that Lily had sent in her time at Hogwarts._

_Lord Voldemort, as he wants to be known as, went to find the Potters late last night..._

_Petunia dropped the letter in fear of reading the next lines, if she didn't know what happened she didn't have to think or worry about it. But as Petunia was quite infamous for her curiosity, she ended up with continuing._

_...James, Lily and their young son Harry has under a time went hiding and been safe under strong enchantments. I think you're familiar wit one of them, the Fidelius Charm? I remember that Lily told me´that she wanted to protect your family with it too, but that you refused?_

_Anyway, Voldemort had in some remarkable way found the Potters, even thouh they were safe under the protection of the Fidelius Charm._

_What happened the, is things we can only guess:_

_ Lord Voldemort entered their home in Godric's Hollow. Obviously James Potter noble tried to hold him of and by that give his wife and some extra minutes to go hiding._

_James Potter was found dead on the floor in the living room._

_ Lord Voldemort must have, after killing James, followed Lily up to Harry's bedroom where she had went for escaping._

_Harry's bedroom was the very place where I had placed a portkey* (*a magicall way of transporting) a couple of weeks ago, just in case something like this would happen._

_If Lily didn't have time to reach the portkey or if it just didn't work, is something neither you or I have the knowledge of._

_At this point was crying. Yes, she was crying for her sister's sake. The sister she hadn't spoken to in nearly three years. The sister she had ignored. The sister she had abandoned._

_She had of course been shocked by her brother-in-law's death, but Lily. __She just couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it._

_Over the years she had regretted treating Lily like she had done. But finding her and apologize was something she wouldn't dare herself doing, instead she hoped for her sister to show up at the front door. Maybe they could make up things again, even though she doubted it._

_With tearful eyes she continued reading and to her horror the littel light of hope she hade left, was gone already at the first sentence._

_Yes, Lily Evans Potter was found dead at the floor next to her crying son._

_In some magical way, Harry Potter survived the killing spell used by Voldemort._

_Something really extraordinary happened yesterday night in Godric's Hollow, something unexpectedly and something that we cannot explain. Only something really strong, stronger than Voldemort's hate and power saved Harry from death._

_Petunia starred at the piece of parchment in her hand. Then she looked up at Harry, the boy was still sleeping peaceful, safely tucked amongst blankets and pillows. She smiled a sympathetically smile at him as he cuddled closer to a pillow._

_Voldemort is now gone. Away. But completely gone would be a lie to say. No, I reckon he's still out their, trying to find a way back. And when he will, Harry Potter will be in grave danger. This is the real reason why Im writing this to you._

_It's about Harry. The boy needs someone who will will take care of him, love him. He needs a home with a family who is willing to openly take him in as their own son and treat him as one to._

_And that's why I ask you, Petunia, that you do so. That yo and you family will adopt him and treat him as your own._

_Remember, ass long as Harry lives under you roof and can call it for his own home – he will be safe from everyone who will want him any harm._

_ There will be times as Harry gets older when he will perform what we call accidently magic. It's a sign that he (which he most surely will) magical powers._

_He will use it of apure accident during mood swings , such as anger and fear._

_ There will also be a time when you have to tell him a few things. This story for example, he´is in need of knowing this._

_ Lastly, the year when he turns eleven, hge will as I'm sure you remember Lily did, get an acceptance to Hogwarts. An as Lily, he will attend that school for seven years in need of training to control his magical powers._

_I suggest that we should keep contact? So that you can contact me if anything extraordinary happens._

_Kind regards,_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

_Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_P.S. The scare on his forehead is a mark form a advanced dark magic, something he will have to live with for the rest of his life._

_Petunia read the last bit a few times before understanding the meaning of it._

_She had to look after him, for Lily. As a sign of respect and a apology to her._

_It woul be hard to convince Vernon of course, after all teh bad things she had said about the magical people, including her sister. It would be hard, but she would do it._

_She would be brave as her sister was._

_ Her eyes was still tearful as she closed the door to the cupboard under the staris where the boy slept, she couldn't bring herself to move him now. Not after what he had been through, not when he had that peaceful look on his face. She couldn't._

_ The breakfast that she where about to make acording to her daily routine, was completely forgotten. Instead she sat down at the table in the kitchen with a firm grip of the letter in her hand as a thought, or more like a promise crossed her mind._

_She would always protect Harry, from everything that stood in her power of doing. Including the magical world, he woudn't end up as her sister did – she would stop that._

_**What did you think? Did you hate it? Love it? Please leave a review with your thoughts and questions! There's so much I'd love to add in this text, but i didn't want to make it to much. As for example a explanation to why Harry ended up treated that badly by both Vernon and Petunia. But I couldn't bring myself doing it.**_

_**The ending seemed to be great as it already was, right? :D**_

_**Anyway, why did it end up lik it did then? : Vernon must have treated Harr ywith disgust and in the beginning she treated Harry well, but when Vernon disapproved she was to...well chicken to say anything against it and after a couple of years it was like the first chapter in the Philosophers Stone, Harry had forgotten all about Petunia caring about him (she still did of course, but deep down) and he was so used to the behavior je was greeted by, that he couldn't imagine anything else. :)**_


End file.
